Monday, January 31, 2011

Will not wearing bandannas stop stabbings?

As per a teenager going crazy with a gun, I don't particularly like Mondays. Not because, you understand, as a result of some errant angst against the world, but rather because Monday's so often bring with them stupid politics and stupid laws, today being no exception.

Apparently, from today the Police will have new powers to tackle feral gangs which will include the power to ban people from wearing "colours" such as a particular bandanna that associates them with a particular gang. Now, I ask you, have you ever in your life heard of anything quite so stupid?

After all, at least if you know a gang all wear the same bandanna you'll know when one of them is walking down the street towards and prepare yourself for the inevitable mugging at knife point. Now though, you won't know, what genius.

However, I digress, remember the absolute furore when someone suggested that we should ban the burka? People from all sides argued how stupid it was. On the civil liberty side it was quite rightly argued that banning certain clothes was absurd, and yet, here we are proposing to ban certain clothes and it's all about tackling crime so it's OK?

If you want to tackle the problem of gang crime it;s quite simple. Arrest them, convict them, and jail them. Don't ban them from wearing certain clothes. Not only is it an affront on basic liberty, but more so it won;t change the fact that some people are vicious violent bastards.

Are we seriously expected to believe that a gang member will wake up one morning and think "oh no, I can't commit a crime today because I;m not wearing my colours".

Note: The title of this post should be a candidate for John Rentoul's "questions to which the answer is no"

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